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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26899720">Relationships are hard</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/noctuabunda/pseuds/noctuabunda'>noctuabunda</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Space Force (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Episode: s1e06 The Spy, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:53:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,045</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26899720</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/noctuabunda/pseuds/noctuabunda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Oh God, how to start this conversation? Was he sweating? He was most definitely sweating, and he could hear the rush of his blood in his ears getting louder by the minute.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrian Mallory &amp; Mark R. Naird, Adrian Mallory/Mark R. Naird</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Relationships are hard</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/PacketofRedApples/gifts">PacketofRedApples</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I just needed a real apology from Mark. So I wrote one.</p><p>Thank you to Kaori_Maxwell for the beta and egging me on to actually write this at all. (And watching the show with me. And the fantastic TinyCon. You're awesome.)<br/>Written for PacketofRedApples, because in tiny fandoms, you need to stick together. :) Hope you like it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Alright, meeting’s adjourned. Everyone, dismissed. Dr. Mallory, if you could stay back for a moment; there’s another matter I’d like to discuss.”</p><p>The scientist got up with the others. “I’m afraid I have another very pressing appointment, General”, he said coolly. “Am I free to go?”</p><p>Mark ignored the alarmed looks everyone else was giving them and looked straight back at him, face impassive. “Of course.”</p><p>He started shuffling his papers around. Only once everyone had left the conference room did he lean back in his chair and let out a heavy, drawn-out sigh.</p><p>He’d really fucked up this time.</p><p>And what was worse: Everyone knew it.</p><p>He had tried to talk to Adrian for a while now, but he’d been shot down every single time. Adrian wasn’t giving him any chance to apologize, his anger – or humiliation? – obviously bigger than any friendship Mark had thought they had. But Mark knew that he couldn’t do his job without Adrian, both constant thorn <em>in</em> and long-suffering companion <em>by</em> his side. </p><p>Something had to be done.</p>
<hr/><p>He’d never been to Adrian’s house before, but it looked almost exactly like he’d imagined: not too big, unpretentious yet elegant with only a strangely large prickly pear cactus in his front yard. He almost went over to inspect it a little closer before he realized what he was doing and why. General Mark Naird had never been one to procrastinate, and he surely wouldn’t start now. He straightened himself before pushing the bell button.</p><p>There was a frown on Adrian’s face when he opened the door – just a little, though, making no room for Mark to come in.</p><p>“You really can’t leave well enough alone, can you?”</p><p>Mark took a deep breath to calm himself and said: “You keep avoiding me. We can’t go on like this forever. <em>I </em>certainly can’t go on like this for much longer.”</p><p>“Forever? Mark, it’s been two days.”</p><p>“I know, and they were both awful.”</p><p>Adrian let out an incredulous chuckle and shook his head. But he opened his door a little wider. “Well, there’s no need to discuss this out in the open. Come in, please.”</p>
<hr/><p>They were sitting in Adrian’s living room, Mark swirling his water around in his whisky tumbler. Adrian had opted for the real thing, sipping the amber liquid slowly, watching his guest squirm a little more with every moment that passed in silence.</p><p>Oh God, how to start this conversation? Was he sweating? He was most definitely sweating, and he could hear the rush of his blood in his ears getting louder by the minute.</p><p><br/>
Finally, Adrian took mercy on him. “So?”</p><p>“So?”, he echoed helplessly, but Adrian just raised his eyebrows, offering no more.</p><p>Mark winced. “Do I really need to go first?”</p><p>“Well, I’m not the one who dragged another man’s most intimate feelings out in the open for everyone to gawk at.”</p><p>“It… It was a sweet song. Jerome is a lucky man.”</p><p>Adrian shrugged, staring at the ground. “It wasn’t meant for anyone else to see. It certainly wasn’t meant for <em>everyone</em> else to see.” </p><p>“I’m sorry I embarrassed you.”</p><p>“Well, given my age and preferences, I have ample experience with humiliation. I’ve had worse.” Mark clenched his teeth in shame and helpless anger, trying very hard not to imagine any events that could’ve been worse. </p><p>Adrian went on, “But you honestly thought I could be a spy. You didn’t trust me. You let them arrest me in front of everyone right there in the cafeteria. And that’s…” He shook his head. “I don’t know how to ignore this.” </p><p>“Well, don’t. Don’t ignore it, don’t forget it. Be your usual petty self and remind me about it every day.”</p><p>“My usual <em>petty</em>-“ </p><p>“But please. Please forgive me. I have wronged you, and I am <em>so</em> sorry about... everything.” With horror, he realized that his voice had cracked just a little in that last sentence. Maybe Adrian hadn't noticed. Quickly, he got up and held out his hand. “Please accept my apology.”</p><p> </p><p>The scientist gaped at him.</p><p>So he <em>had</em> noticed. Shit.</p><p> </p><p>But then he got up, too, and clasped Mark’s hand between both of his. They were warm and dry and surprisingly soft. “It’s alright, Mark”, he said quietly, probably going for soothing, oh God, did he look like he needed to be <em>soothed</em>? “Or it will be as soon as they stop calling me Satchmo in the labs”, he added with a wry smile.</p><p>Mark was so ridiculously relieved he actually giggled at that comment, and when he turned away to sit down again, he wiped a tear from the corners of his eye with his knuckles inconspicuously. “Thank you. I’ll take that whisky now, if it’s all right with you.”</p><p>Adrian got up to get the bottle, but when Mark held up his glass, he made no move to fill it. Instead he just stared at… oh. So his hands were still shaking from the adrenaline. When Adrian noticed that he had caught him staring, he quickly poured the drink and sat down again – next to him, this time.</p><p>“Mark, are you all right?”</p><p>“Yes, perfect”, he answered way too quickly. He still felt a little light-headed. “It’s just… I’m really glad I got you back.”</p><p>“I wasn’t gone, you know. Just angry.”</p><p>“Yes, of course.” He turned the glass between his fingers, again and again, thinking back to his time in the lunar habitat and the advice Jerome had given him. “I… well.” It had helped to open up back then, maybe it would help now. “I couldn’t handle my job here without you. Hell, I couldn’t handle my <em>life</em> here without you right now.”</p><p>“And yet you were entirely ready to have me arrested on the spot.”</p><p>“I said I was sorry! It was just… sometimes I feel like SecDef and POTUS and Grabaston are all out to get me, and they had me cornered and I-“ <em>panicked</em>, was what he most definitely didn’t say. “I couldn’t tell my friends from my enemies anymore.”</p><p>Adrian nodded sagely. “Relationships are hard.”</p><p>“Yes, they are.”</p><p>“But they do get easier.”</p><p>“Not so sure about that.”</p><p>There was the tiniest hint of a smile hiding in the corner of Adrian’s mouth. “You’ll see.”</p>
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